1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of exercise devices to strengthen and tone the neck and facial muscles, particularly the muscles surrounding the mouth. More specifically the present invention relates to a facial and neck muscle exercising device for positioning against opposite corners of a person's mouth at the opening thereof to strengthen facial, neck, and mouth muscles. The exercising device comprises first and second mouth spreading arms which include respective end members that are spaced apart and adapted to engage the opposite corners of the person's mouth and respective elongate slide members slidably connected together to vary the spacing of the end members. An arm retaining device is connected to the slide members adapted to control relative sliding movement of the mouth spreading arms to control the spacing and movement of the end members against the corners of the person's mouth as the muscles are flexed and relaxed during exercise.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The face area of a person is the most often viewed part of a person's body and as such is of prime interest for enhancement and rehabilitation due to the rigors of aging, illness, surgery, and injury. During the aging process, skin loses elasticity with consequent development of wrinkles and drooping. Likewise, the muscle tone of the underlying muscles is lost as reflected by less bulk and lengthening thereof resulting in less support for the overlying skin which accentuates the drooping and wrinkling of the skin. Medical illnesses such as strokes often cause loss of nervous system input to muscles of the body including the facial muscles resulting in drooping in the facial muscles such as the lips, unconsciously driveling, dropping of food during chewing, difficulty swallowing, and speaking unclearly, and other interference with chewing, swallowing and speaking. Additionally, surgery and injuries from accidents such as fires can cause scarring of the skin which scar tissue is less elastic than unscarred skin. This can cause disfigurement and loss of function such as at the mouth area which can cause constriction thereof leading to difficulty in chewing, swallowing and speaking.
Surgery such as face lifts is widely touted as the way to restore youthfulness to the facial area but has inherent risks of deformity due to lack of expertise by the surgeon conducting the procedure and infection due to unsanitary surgical conditions. Originally, face lifts consisted of slitting the skin at the hair line, pulling the skin upwardly taut, cutting away the excess skin, and stitching the slit back together. While this provided a temporary two to five year improvement in looks, the skin eventually stretched back to the droopy state due to lingering attachment to the underlying toneless facial muscles. The more recently improved facelifts go a step further by surgically separating the skin from the underlying facial muscles, slitting and shortening the facial muscles, and stitching the slits back together. This modern face lift lasts much longer since the skin reattaches to the underlying muscles which now have improved tone due to the shortening thereof. While surgery such as face lifts is widely touted as the way to reinvigorate or restore function to the facial area, surgery has the inherent risks of deformity and infection.
A recent alternative to surgery that is much less invasive is a Botox™ treatment which is the injection of Botulism toxin into the facial area to selectively paralyze the facial muscles. This treatment alleviates tension on the facial skin caused by voluntary and involuntary contractions thereof which allows the facial skin to extend to a completely relaxed condition wherein wrinkles are minimized. While the treatment may reduce the degree of wrinkles on the face, there is no toning of the affected facial muscles to help fill out the face and reduce the appearance of wrinkles. Conversely, the non-use of the affected muscles actually causes atrophy and shrinking thereof. The treatment is not entirely risk-free and must be done by trained personnel to prevent permanent nerve damage and facial paralysis. The treatment often produces unnatural facial expressions due to the combination of paralyzed and non-paralyzed muscles. The treatments wear off and must be repeated at three to four month intervals to retain the desired degree of paralysis of the facial muscles.
There have been various devices developed over the years to exercise the facial muscles for enhancing the look of the facial area to look younger and for rehabilitation following illness, surgery, or injury.
A facial exerciser designed for exercising the muscles of the face, chin and neck is disclosed in Buckner, U.S. Pat. No. 4,671,260 issued on Jun. 9, 1987. The facial exerciser includes a pair of spreader bars each having a lip engaging end member at a distal end thereof and a coupler at a proximal end thereof. Each coupler includes a longitudinal groove into which the shank of the other coupler is snapped to connect the shanks together in parallel so as to be slidable with respect to one another. Each coupler includes a creased outer edge for retaining an elastic band thereto to bias apart the lip engaging pieces to provide resistance to constriction of the person's lips. While the facial exerciser provides biasing apart of the spreader bars, the amount of biasing is not adjustable other than by switching to elastic bands of greater or lesser strength. Likewise, adjustment of the length of the facial exerciser is not adjustable.
Buckner also discloses an oral appliance for burn patients in earlier U.S. Pat. No. 3,938,508 issued on Feb. 17, 1976. The oral appliance is for persons who have suffered facial burns to prevent shrinkage of the tissues around the mouth and lips during the healing process. The oral appliance is similar to the facial exerciser except that the spreader bars are fixedly retained together at a desired position. The couplers are adjustable for the appliance to fit the person's mouth and can be progressively widened the opening of the mouth if shrinkage thereof has occurred. While the length of the oral appliance is adjustable, the spreader bars are rigidly affixed together during use rather than being biased apart elastically.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a facial muscle and neck muscle exercising device which is of adjustable bias without changing any elastic members.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a facial and neck muscle exercising device which is of adjustable length and resistance strength.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a facial and neck muscle exercising device which tones facial muscles and muscles of the neck to reduce wrinkles and drooping and provide an enhanced younger appearance.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide such a facial and neck muscle exercising device which rehabilitates and restores facial and neck muscles damaged due to aging or from illness, surgery, or injury.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide such a facial and neck muscle exercising device which is easy to use, lightweight, durable, and compact.
It is finally an object of the present invention to provide such a facial and neck muscle exercising device which is comfortable to use.